Letters for Lily
by BeverlyAnna
Summary: As James sends Lily a series of letters that she's just not interested in, Petunia starts intercepting the mail.


"Lily," Petunia said, bursting into her sister's room in an upset huff, "one of those stupid owls has been outside the kitchen window for you for the past ten minutes."

"You do realize you could have just grabbed the letter yourself?" Lily bit, slamming the book in front of her shut and rising from her bed.

Petunia gave Lily a cold stare. "You know I don't want to have anything to do with this."

"Contrary to your beliefs," Lily stated, strolling out of her room with Petunia in her wake, "bringing in my mail isn't going to contaminate you."

Petunia didn't say anything. Instead, she crossed her arms over her chest and followed her sister until she'd reached the kitchen.

"Tuney," Lily said as she struggled to open the window, "if it's not too much trouble, could you pass me the change purse on the counter?"

Petunia grabbed the purse and passed it to her sister just as the owl flew into the room. Lily easily removed a letter addressed to her from around the owl's foot, and then removed several treats from the change purse.

"Do you need water, Delly?" Lily asked the owl gently. She responded with a quiet coo, and Lily busied herself by finding a dish to fill at the sink.

Once the owl was settled, Lily tossed the change purse aside and then found herself studying the letter in her hand.

"Who's it from?" Petunia asked when Lily hadn't moved in a solid thirty seconds.

Lily shrugged, tossing the envelope onto the counter. "It doesn't matter. Besides, I thought you didn't care about anything that came from _my world_?" Lily said the last two words disdainfully, mocking a tone her sister had used almost daily.

"I said I don't want to have anything to do with it," Petunia snapped back, "not that I didn't care." She slid her hand down the counter and picked up the letter Lily had so carelessly thrown away.

"It doesn't even say who it's from," Petunia observed, studying the outside of the letter. It was a folded-over piece of parchment with _Lily Evans_ scrawled smartly across the front.

"I know the owl," Lily said dismissively, "And I recognize the handwriting. I'm not interested."

"Well," Petunia said, unfolding the letter, "I am."

"Tuney!" Lily exclaimed. "Please."

Petunia ignored her sister and, despite Lily's continued protests, began to read aloud:

 _Dear Lily,_

 _I hope this letter finds you well. I know a telephone call would have been a better way to do this. I tried to borrow a phone from one of my mum's coworkers, but I don't have your number, and frankly I don't understand the contraption._

 _That isn't the point._

 _I wanted to apologize for the way we ended this year. I can't believe the last conversation we had was about The Beatles. I swear that there were things I wanted to say. Especially about how you handled things with Remus. And about how you looked with your hair down during the Defense final. Please write me back so we can talk._

 _Yours,_

 _James_

"Lily," Petunia said after dropping the letter, "I have a lot to say."

Lily's cheeks were flushed, and she couldn't meet her sister's eyes. "I'd rather not hear it." With that dismissal, it seemed clear that Lily had no intentions of replying, so the owl seemed to take her cue and once again found her way through the window.

"It's my duty as your older sister to tell you what I'm thinking." Petunia approached her sister and plainly stated, "It is shameful that these people don't know how to work a telephone."

Lily let out a slight chuckle at that. "It is a little pathetic."

Petunia returned a tentative smile. "It's good that he knows The Beatles, though."

"I've been doing my best to educate the lot of them," Lily replied.

Petunia nodded at her and then continued, "Are you with this boy?"

" _With him_?" she repeated, sounding quite distressed. "Absolutely not, Petunia. Do you think he'd be writing me letters like this if I were giving him the time of day?"

"Well, he seems to be on pretty familiar terms with you. You must be giving him something."

"Nothing but a bit of attitude," Lily grumbled. "Now, I don't want to talk about this anymore."

"C'mon, Lils."

Lily shook her head, grabbed James's letter from the counter and crumpled it into a ball. She then stomped from the room, ignoring her sister as she called after her.

The next day found the two girls in the same situation. Once again Lily had received a letter from James, and once again she was refusing to read it.

Petunia rescued it from its discarded state, and read it aloud:

 _Dear Lily,_

 _Based on the fact that my owl returned to me well-fed but empty taloned, I can only assume that you chose not to reply._

 _Can I ask why? I'm trying to reach out here, Lily. I know this probably seems like too little too late, but even getting a letter that says 'bugger off' would feel better than being ignored._

 _I'll even give you a few things to talk about in case you're not ready to talk about the serious things yet: the color of the sky, the fact that Peter is sleeping on my floor right now, the way your voice turns shrill when you're taking away house points, the fact that Remus wants to go see a muggle movie over the break… Please, take your pick. Talk to me about something. Anything._

 _I hope you're doing well._

 _Yours,_

 _James_

"He's trying awfully hard here, Lily," Petunia said gently when she finished reading. "You know I'm not normally one to approve of these things, but maybe ––"

"No," Lily cut her off vehemently. With her harsh dismissal, James's owl once again disappeared.

By the third day, Lily and Petunia had fallen into a rather disgruntled pattern.

Lily already had food out for the owl when she arrived. Instead of immediately taking the letter from her foot, she spent a moment stroking her cheek. "Delly," she mumbled to the bird, "it's not that you're not lovely, but we've got to stop meeting like this."

The bird cooed, Petunia laughed, and Lily frowned.

She untied the letter, and tiredly passed it over to Petunia.

 _Dear Lily,_

 _Day three. I'm starting to get worried about you. Honestly, if you hadn't spent so many days ignoring me over the years, I'd be_ really _worried about you. At least I know this is semi-typical behavior._

 _Since it doesn't seem that you're looking to write me back, I'll expand upon my apologies a bit more. I'm so very sorry that the lads think it's funny to take the mickey out of you. It's because they know I like you, and they really do it more to upset me than to upset you. Sirius is a right git anyway. I'm sorry that they sent you that telegram in the middle of the Potions final, and it caused you to get so flustered that you messed up a recipe I'm positive you knew forwards and backwards and forwards again. I really do feel awful._

 _Thanks for talking to me after the incident. I just wish it hadn't been such trivial conversation._

 _I'm thinking of you, Lily._

 _Yours,_

 _James_

"Lily," Petunia said, releasing a slight whistle. "What in the world goes on at that school of yours?"

Lily shook her head back and forth. "Your guess is as good as mine," she told her sister. She then turned her attention to the owl. "Delly, you can go."

Delly ruffled her wings, but remained firmly in place.

"I don't think it's going to leave," Petunia said, utterly shocked at the owl's disobedience.

"It is a she," Lily snapped back. Then more gently, "She has to go home." When the bird remained still, Lily picked her up and brought her over to the window. "Come on, Dell," she said, prompting her flight. The owl nipped at her finger instead of attempting to fly anywhere.

"You have to write him back, Lily," Petunia urged. She walked over to her sister's side and addressed the owl, "That's what you're waiting for, isn't it?"

The owl let out another coo, but Lily was too transfixed by her sister to notice. "Tuney," she breathed, "you're talking to ––"

"I know," Petunia said, "and it won't happen again. But this time, I think you need to answer."

Lily took a deep breath, and then nodded her head. She walked to the fridge and grabbed a sheet of paper that her mum used to keep track of the grocery list.

Quickly, she scrawled:

 _J_ ––

 _I'd rather talk about this in person._

 _Reluctantly yours,_

–– _L_

 _Ps. Delly is entirely too persistent._

She quickly folded the piece of paper up, and tied it to the owl's leg. "Here goes nothing," she mumbled. Petunia gave her a weak smile, but Lily was in no mood to return it.

Day four and Lily refused to come downstairs and listen to her sister read the letter. Instead, Petunia braved taking the letter from the owl herself. She marched up to Lily's bedroom, and knocked gently on the door.

"Can I read it to you?" she asked her sister quietly.

Lily buried her head in her pillow, but then gave a groan of consent.

 _Dearest Lily,_

 _You wonderful, beautiful girl! I'll see you next week? Any day! Whatever works best for you. Come 'round for tea. We'll talk, and I'll make sure that Sirius is out of the house._

 _Thank you, thank you, thank you._

 _Yours,_

 _James_

 _Ps. I know she's persistent. All my favorite girls are._

"What day are you going to see him?" Petunia pressed.

"Are you going to write the reply for me?" Lily said, unamused.

Petunia hesitated, then nodded. "If you don't want to."

Lily turned over so that she could smile at her sister. "Tell him that I'll be there Tuesday. And tell him that no matter how smoothly he works it in, I resent being called one of his favorite girls."

Petunia grinned, and then made to leave the room.

"Tuney?" Lily called just before she shut the door.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you," she said.

Petunia nodded. "You owe me an update."

"We'll see," Lily replied, but the smile on her face was enough to confirm that she would absolutely be supplying her sister with whatever she wanted to hear.


End file.
